Process plants, like those used in chemical, petroleum or other processes, typically include one or more centralized or decentralized process controllers communicatively coupled to at least one host or operator workstation and to one or more process control and instrumentation devices, such as field devices, via analog, digital or combined analog/digital buses. Field devices, which may be, for example valves, valve positioners, switches, transmitters, and sensors (e.g., temperature, pressure and flow rate sensors), perform functions within the process such as opening or closing valves and measuring process parameters. While a typical process plant has many process control and instrumentation devices, such as valves, transmitters, sensors, etc. connected to one or more process controllers which execute software that controls these devices during the operation of the process, there are many other supporting devices which are also necessary for or related to process operation. These additional devices include, for example, power supply equipment, power generation and distribution equipment, rotating equipment such as turbines, etc., which are located at numerous places in a typical plant. While this additional equipment does not necessarily create or use process variables and, in many instances, is not controlled or even coupled to a process controller for the purpose of affecting the process operation, this equipment is nevertheless important to and ultimately necessary for proper operation of the process. In the past however, process controllers were not necessarily aware of these other devices or the process controllers simply assumed that these devices were operating properly when performing process control.
Still further, many process plants have other computers associated therewith which execute applications related to business functions or maintenance functions. For example, some plants include computers which execute applications associated with ordering raw materials, replacement parts or devices for the plant, applications related to forecasting sales and production needs, etc. Likewise, many process plants, and especially those which use smart field devices, use asset management applications which are used to help monitor, track, and maintain the devices within the plant regardless of whether these devices are process control and instrumentation devices or are other types of devices. For example, an Asset Management Solutions (AMS) application sold by Fisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc. enables communication with and stores data pertaining to field devices to ascertain and track the operating state of various field devices. An example of such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,214 entitled “Integrated Communication Network for use in a Field Device Management System.”
Maintenance personnel who are primarily responsible for ensuring that the actual equipment within the process is operating efficiently and for repairing and replacing malfunctioning equipment, use tools such as maintenance interfaces, the AMS application discussed above, as well and many other diagnostic tools which provide information about operating states of the devices within the process. To maintain information about various field devices in a process control system, such an AMS application maintains a database of information about a number of devices. Generally, various devices used in a process control system can be expected to be manufactured by a number of different manufacturers. It is quite likely that not all the devices communicate with each other or the process control devices in the same manner. To overcome the problem of incompatibility among devices manufactured by different manufacturers, the process instrumentation industry uses a standardized digital device communications protocol as defined by a foundation such as the HART Foundation, or Fieldbus Foundation in order to allow a single application to communicate with multiple device types. Typically, these foundations will have a standard that defines how each device identifies itself to a process control system using a standard communication protocol and a device description (DD). Each device type would typically have its own DD. Typically a DD contains a number of parameters identifying a device, such as a name of a manufacturer of the device, a serial number of a device, a revision number of a device, etc. The DD, typically, would also contain definitions for accessible variables, commands and operating procedures.
It is quite possible that each device type used in a process plant may support a different set of parameters in order for it to perform its function. Alternatively, some devices may use a different name or structure for the same parameter. For example, one of the parameters describing a device may be a manufature_ID, which provides information about an ID number associated with a manufacturer of a device. The AMS application may accept only numeric characters for a manufacture_ID. On the other hand another device may provide the same information about a manufacturer of a device using a parameter named manufacture_identification, where this parameter will accept any alphanumeric characters.
When the AMS application is implemented in a process plant that uses such a device, the maintenance personal may want to import existing data about their instrumentation into AMS. This existing information may be from a 3rd Party application such as the device manufacturer, another asset management system, engineering design system, etc. Typically, the existing data can be exported out of these 3rd Party systems to a generic textfile. When such a generic text file provides a device identifying information using a data structure different from a data structure expected by AMS database, either the generic text file or the data from the generic text file has to be modified before such data is imported into the AMS database to ensure that its data structure complies with the data structure accepted by the AMS.
Another problem associated with importing device information into an AMS database is a use of enumerations to define various parameters describing a device. For example, in the AMS a parameter named pressure_output_transport_function, which is used to describe pressure output transport function of certain type of device, may contain only a value of 0 or 1, where 0 represents a linear function and 1 represents a square root function. On the other hand, a generic text file describing the same type of device from a 3rd Party may define the same characteristic of the device by a parameter named output_pressure_transport_function, which may contain only a value of L or S, where L represents a linear function and S represents a square root function. When importing data from such a generic text file into the AMS application, it is necessary that all instances of L are converted to 0 and all instances of S are converted to 1.
Various manual data mapping methods are used currently which may involve using a spreadsheet or similar tool or custom programming to map import parameters related to a device from one format to another in order to allow the importing of the data into an asset management database. Manual methods are extremely time consuming and less reliable in terms of consistency of the data when importing said data. While custom programming can be done to automate the steps and improve the reliability of the data, this requires the development of a custom application to do the work each time and someone still needs to document how the mapping is to be done.